11-Mar-20: A thwarted stabbing in Jerusalem's Old City

The thwarted stabber is removed from the scene of the attack
[Image Source: Yonatan Sindel, Flash 90] 

Barely mentioned elsewhere, an Israel National News report [here] says a Palestinian Arab resident of Jerusalem was thwarted yesterday (Tuesday around 1:40 in the afternoon) from carrying out a stabbing attack.

His target was the Border Guard officers stationed outside the Shalem police station near the bustling Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and its Muslim Quarter.

The would-be knifer is said to have walked up to the police station's entrance and pulled out a concealed knife. The Israelis perceived this to be an unfriendly act and promptly - and efficiently to judge from the results - overpowered the attacker, promptly separating him from his weapon.

He's alive and well, neutralized (as the commonly-used security terminology describes it) but definitely not dead. And undergoing interrogation.

Damascus Gate, which has been the site of many violent Arab-on-Israel attacks in the past several years [click here to see our posts about some of them], was briefly closed. No injuries are reported.

18-Jan-20: Red lines, defilement and more Arab-on-Israeli knifings

The Kiryat Arab victim in today's Israel National News report

If you rely on news reports alone, the ebb and flow of Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks can seem to happen without any obvious pattern or underlying motivation.

But sometimes, you wait a little and you learn that there are forces at work that wanted these to happen.

We're mostly in the dark about what's driving events here in the Jerusalem area today. But as always, there are clues. And yes, a Palestinian Arab child is involved. Again.

From Times of Israel, we know a man of 22 suffered moderate injuries this afternoon (Saturday - Shabbat) when he was stabbed in the shoulder by "a Palestinian youth" (a term that can have multiple meanings) in Kiryat Arba. The knifer was arrested while trying to escape the scene of the attack according to the IDF is in their hands for questioning. Haaretz says the stabber is an as-yet-unnamed seventeen year old. Keep that in mind the next time you see, and you surely will see, hostile news coverage complaining of how Israel takes so many children into custody.

The knifing victim is in Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center where they say he is in stable condition. Israel National News this evening says the Israeli is Moshe Greenblatt, who says from his hospital bed that "Thank G-d, I feel good... The knife broke and he didn't manage to stab any of the people around me."

Earlier today (Saturday - the Jewish Sabbath), a Palestinian Arab female said to be "in her fifties" was taken into custody by Border Police officers after threatening them with a knife at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Times of Israel report says she was subdued by officers and a civilian who happened to be at the scene and is also undergoing questioning.

Friday morning, right after the completion of their morning prayer service which were attended by an estimated 8,000 people, hundreds of Muslim Arab worshipers chanted about killing Jews outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Police dispersed the crowd. Times of Israel says no one was injured in the clashes with police.

TV footage from the march shows members of the unruly crowd shouting in Arabic “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”

Video clip from 124news.tv

It's a recurring theme - the chant recalls how in the seventh century Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, located in today's Saudi Arabia. Their chants also included “With spirit and blood, we will salvage Al-Aqsa” and “Jews, the army of Al-Aqsa is returning.”

Hamas, on Friday, declared itself happy with the unrest. Times of Israel quotes one of its spokespeople saying the morning prayers “support our people in their campaign against the Zionist occupation and thwart its racist plans.”

This past Wednesday, Hamas publicly called for Palestinian Arabs to “mobilize” during Friday’s prayers against the “defilement” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs by “the Zionist occupation.” The terrorists sought to persuade Israeli authorities that “our sanctities are a red line that cannot be tolerated.”

19-Sep-18: Kol Nidrei night stabbing attack at entrance to Jerusalem's Old City

A Palestinian Arab launched a stabbing attack on a Jewish pedestrian outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls on Tuesday evening, the night of Yom Kippur. Times of Israel quotes an Israeli police statement reporting “an attempted stabbing attack” near Damascus Gate, saying “a police unit at the spot neutralized the suspect.”

The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said the attacker was shot dead by Israeli police.

The thwarted attacker is said to be a 26-year-old male from Qalandiya on Jerusalem's north side. Haaretz names him as Mohammed Yusuf Sha'aban Alian and says he was in Israel illegally. It refers to a screwdriver as the attack weapon and the location as Jerusalem's Hanevi'im (Prophets) Street which leads to the square outside Damascus Gate. Israel National News has post-attack police camera footage here.

The reliably-despicable Ma'an News Agency ["Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian for alleged attack"] spells the knifer's name Muhammad Youssef Shaaban Elayyan and reveals that

"Israeli authorities sealed off the street in the al-Musrara neighborhood surrounding the scene for several hours, preventing local residents from accessing it. The Israeli authorities then transferred Elayyan's body to an unknown location after holding his body at the scene for about three hours."

This may seem like a parody but it's representative of how the European-financed Ma'an routinely reports Arab-on-Israeli terror.

We're searching for announcements in the Arab media of the attacker being formally elevated to martyrdom.

UPDATE Thursday September 20, 2018 12:05 am - We didn't have to wait long. The Arabic version, but not the English of course, of the Ma'an news report is headlined "Video and photos - A martyr shot by the occupation in Jerusalem". Other Arabic reports praising the thwarted stabber as "martyr" are all over the web - see http://archive.is/nCaKJ . An Arabic tweet from Palestine Information Center announces that in the Kafr Aqab and Qalandia "refugee camps" they were going to hold strikes Wednesday to mourn "the martyr".]

For reasons related to the time of year and pressures at home, we have not yet written about the shocking murder-by-stabbing this past Sunday of Ari Fuld Hy"d by a Palestinian Arab eleventh-grader in the Gush Etzion Mall. But iy"H we will.

07-May-17: An Arab girl of 16 launched a failed knifing attack at Damascus Gate tonight

Jerusalem's Damascus Gate shortly after tonight's thwarted attack
[Image Source]

There has been yet another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack at Damascus Gate on the periphery of Jerusalem's Old City. The attacker, yet again, is a teen-age Palestinian Arab girl with a knife. The outcome, as we have seen so many times, is that security personnel did what security personnel do and opened fire under attack. This time, the assailant is dead.

Ynet, reporting this evening (Sunday) on an incident that happened just before 7:00 pm, says:

A female terrorist was shot dead by Israeli security forces on Sunday evening after she attempted to stab Israel policemen at the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The terrorist was identified by the Palestinian health ministry as 16-year-old Fatima Hjeiji from a town near Ramallah. Though she was treated at the scene by Zaka paramedics, she died from her injuries. No other people were injured in the incident. According to police, while charging at the security personnel, she was shouting, “Allahu akbar.” Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a knife was recovered from the scene together with a farewell letter from the teenager to her family quoting a verse from the Koran that signed off with the word “shahida”—Arabic for “martyr.”

The attacker's knife [Social media]

Times of Israel provides a little more detail:

According to police, the girl approached a group of officers who were standing guard at the gate. “The terrorist arrived from Sultan Suleiman Street toward the steps of the Damascus Gate. She approached a police and border guard force stationed in the area. She took out a knife and while screaming ‘Allahu Akhbar’ tried to attack them,” the spokesperson said. “The force responded with determination and professionalism, and neutralized her,” the spokesperson added.

The Palestinian Arab Ma'an news source has the girl's full name:  Fatima Afif Abd al-Rahman Hjeiji, and gives the name of her Ramallah-area home village as Qarawat Bani Zeid. As always, it refers to the attack as being merely "alleged" and recycles its standard boilerplate apologetics:

"Though Israeli forces often claimed that Palestinians were allegedly attempting to carry out stabbing attacks when they were shot and killed, Palestinians and rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases."

What Ma'an fails, as always, to do is observe how many Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks are done by children, and how many of the children are girls. Also: how a society produces weaponized and apathetic children driven by a hatred so all-encompassing that it conquers their own will to live.

UPDATE May 9, 2017: The thwarted girl with the knife wanted to kill and to be killed. What she posted to her Facebook page is depicted here and here. Meanwhile in the darker parts of the Israel-hating media, there are proliferating reports that she didn't really have a knife, and that she was actually executed by Israeli forces "in cold blood" and for no reason. The more they deny the reality of weaponized children, the less the chance that something can be done to stop it.

14-Apr-17: The urge to stab erupts again: In Jerusalem, a young woman is knifed on a tram

Paramedics at the scene [Image Source]

As busy, bustling and full of life as Israel's capital is today during the Passover festival, there is a serious incident to report.

The deep strategic reserves of explosive hatred, in evidence for generations in the form of Arab-on-Israeli terror, erupted again a short time ago, Friday a little after noon, in Jerusalem.

A young woman is reported (at about 1:40 pm Friday) to be in critical condition after becoming the latest victim of a stabbing attack, this time while on board the Jerusalem Light Rail. As we write this, the latest report says first-responder medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service gave her emergency treatment at the scene of the attack. She was then rushed to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital unconscious and in critical condition with multiple stab wounds to the upper body. Times of Israel is estimating she is in her mid-twenties.

There are additional victims. A pregnant woman suffered an injury to the stomach when the tram came to a sudden halt as a consequence of the terror attack. A man said to be in his 50s suffered an injured leg in trying to run from the scene. Both were brought to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital for emergency treatment.

The scene of the stabbing is close to Zahal Square where Jerusalem's principal thoroughfare comes as close as it ever does to the Old City Walls and nearby Jaffa Gate. Damscus Gate of the Old City, a favored locale for Arab violence, is a couple of hundred meters further along the tram tracks. Officers of the Border Guard police sealed Damascus Gate as they often do when terrorist activity takes place in its vicinity.

At this stage, we have no information about the attacker other than he is reported to be alive and well.

UPDATE 1:55 pm: A Hebrew social media report quotes a senior police source saying the attacker is a male in his fifties, thought to be suffering from mental problems (vague and unspecified at this stage). Times of Israel reports that the victim is British, and the attacker is an East Jerusalem resident - probably meaning a Palestinian Arab.

UPDATE 2:15 pm Friday: Ynet says the stabbing victim, a young British woman of 22, a student, has died of her wounds. What a terrible tragedy.

UPDATE 2:40 pm Friday: The stabber is named by Ynet: Jamil Tamimi, 57, from the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. That name Tamimi has strong resonances for us. The Arab Ma'an News Agency says he "has a prior criminal police record for domestic violence".

01-Apr-17: Jerusalem's Old City: A Sabbath afternoon stabbing attack

The visibly-wounded Israeli victims of the stabbing,
shown in a video clip posted to Arabic media. 

Another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing in Jerusalem's Old City.

Based on a 4:15 pm Israel Police statement, two young Israeli men, dressed in identifiably Haredi clothing, evidently yeshiva students, were attacked on Hagai Street by a male Arab armed with a knife and suffered stab wounds to the upper parts of their bodies. From images posted to social media sites, at least one of the Israelis was stabbed from behind in the back between the shoulder blades.

The attacker, pursued by members of the Israeli security forces, ducked into a home near the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva to try to evade them. They caught up with him and a struggle ensued in which one of the Israelis, an officer in the Border Police, was seriously injured. The knifer was then shot and killed.

Israelis came under rock-throwing attack shortly afterwards in the vicinity of the Old City's heavily-secured Damascus Gate (Sha'ar Shechem in Hebrew). Stun grenades were reportedly used to neutralize those attackers. Another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack was foiled at Damascus Gate this past Wednesday.

The civilian victims of this afternoon's stabbing, males aged 18 and 20 (they're in the photo above), were taken to the hospital emergency room at Hadassah Ein Karem for emergency treatment and are reported to be in good condition and fully conscious. The Border Guard officer, in his early twenties, is recovering in hospital, and also said to be in good condition.

In the plaza outside Jerusalem's Damascus Gate this afternoon,
rock throwing and clashes [Image Source]

The attacker is reported, according to the PA's Ministry of Health, to be a 17 year-old Arab male, Ahmad Zahir Fathi Ghazal from the Nablus area which is some 50 km north of Jerusalem. Arabic-language Posters celebrating his deed [here] were quickly posted to social media, along with a pre-martyrdom selfie [via Twitter] he evidently took earlier in the day and shortly before embarking on the knife attacks showing him standing on the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

In its Arabic version of the news report, but not in the English, the Ma'an News Agency, a notorious and controversial Palestinian Arab publisher, describes the attacker as "martyr" and his death as an execution by the Israelis. This is a fairly standard approach in their reporting of Arab-on-Israeli terrorist attacks.

We have no details of his family's reaction but know, on the basis of what has been published over the past several years about the Palestinian Authority's Rewards for Terror scheme (known also as Pay-to-Slay), that they now become entitled to substantial payments from the PA. As we noted recently, the relatives of the Palestinian Arab stabber who killed an American visitor to Tel Aviv, Taylor Force, a year ago now receive monthly payments equal to several times the average Palestinian wage.

Despite the PA's constant denials, the funding for this scheme and the fat payments it makes to terrorists and their families is made possible only because of the generosity of Western governments and via the polite blind eye they turn to this unconscionable abuse of foreign aid.

There are more details and background in our recent blog post: "28-Mar-17: The US can end the Palestinian Arab bureaucracy of terror".

29-Mar-17: At entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, another foiled stabbing attack

At Jerusalem's heavily secured Damascus Gate (Sha'ar Shechem in Hebrew), it's reported this afternoon (Wednesday) that a female assailant “appears to have attempted to stab police officers” in an apparent terror attack. Officers of the Border Guard at the scene shot her according to Times of Israel and she died of her injuries. A police statement as of about 4:00 pm (see Twitter) suggests the Old City is closed off and police and emergency units are at the scene.

All the elements of what appears to be a successfully foiled attack are familiar: a woman with a knife; Damascus Gate and the Old City area; Israeli police as the targets. But an Arab news source is less sure:

Witness told Ma'an that the Nimr was walking with her daughter in the entrance to Damascus Gate, and that an altercation occurred once they came close to Israeli police officers. [Ma'an News Agency, March 29, 2017]

UPDATE 6:00 am on March 30, 2017: It's reported that the attacker is Siham Nimr, 49, from Shuafat, East Jerusalem. Ynet says

She is the mother of Mustafa Nimr, who was accidentally killed by policemen in September 2016 after his cousin rammed through an east Jerusalem checkpoint while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The officers mistook the two for terrorists, shooting the vehicle and critically wounding Mustafa, who was sitting in the passenger seat... A source in the Shuafat refugee camp told Ynet that since her son was killed, Siham was heavily depressed and couldn’t recover. The source estimated that she tried to stab the officers probably as revenge for her son's death.

Revenge, as a reflection of the honor/shame value system that seems to characterize Palestinian Arab society, plays an oversize role in the motivations claimed for Arab-on-Israeli terror.

19-Sep-16: Outside Jerusalem's Old City, a Monday morning Arab-on-Israeli terror attack

There continues to be serious violence in the air.

Two officers of the Border Guard service (Mishmar Hagvul in Hebrew) were seriously injured when attacked from behind by a man wielding a knife on the street outside Jerusalem's Old City around 7:00 this (Monday) morning.

Times of Israel says one of the Israeli victims, a female officer of about 38, is in intensive care at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital with stab wounds to the neck. (We have noted before that attacking the neck is standard Arab-on-Israeli practice in the Palestinian Arab terror manual.) She is unconscious and was placed on a respirator.

A second victim, also a Border Guard officer of about 40, has moderate injuries and is hospitalized at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Karem quarter with multiple stab wounds to the upper body. He is conscious. It was evidently he who fired his weapon at the terrorist, preventing further mayhem.

Their attacker was shot and is now receiving treatment in a Jerusalem hospital where the latest report is that he's in critical condition. The initial reports we have seen say he is in his early 20s and from the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. In a later Times of Israel report, the knifer is identified as Ayman al-Kurd.

An earlier report from the Jerusalem Post says the attack took place on the road outside two of Jerusalem's medieval gates: Damascus Gate and Herod’s (or Flower) Gate. The Israeli victims were on security patrol. The entire area - and many Jerusalem major roads - were immediately cordoned off, causing traffic chaos and delays throughout the city during Monday morning rush hour.

More shortly about the other terrorist activity of today.

16-Sep-16: Arab-on-Israeli stabber thwarted at one of Jerusalem's Old City gates

The stabber lies died at the entrance to Damascus Gate [Image Source]

As it does from time to time, Israel relaxed certain of its security practices earlier this month in order to accommodate the needs of Muslims celebrating one of Islam's major festivals, Eid al-Adha.

Some 100,000 Palestinian Arab family visits from their homes in Judea and Samaria into Jerusalem were approved for the holiday including access to the Temple Mount and Gaza Arabs, among others, were given entry via the Allenby Bridge crossing on the Jordan River. [Source: "Liberman allows easing of restrictions for Muslim holiday" | Israel National News, September 5, 2016]

By no coincidence, the Allenby crossing is in today's news.

In the past hour, at about 12:40 pm Friday, security officers of the Israeli Border Guard shot and killed a Jordanian male as he attacked, and sought to stab, a female officer. The attack took place at Jerusalem's busy Damascus Gate.

The area has been closed off, and additional officers were brought to the scene, the spokesperson said... The officer was not injured in the attack. The man arrived at the Damascus Gate from inside the Old City and approached a group of officers with a knife drawn. The officers saw the man coming towards them with the blade and opened fire, police said. The 28-year-old assailant was carrying a Jordanian passport, but police were still investigating if he also held a Palestinian ID card. His name has yet to be released. The man entered Israel through the Allenby border crossing on Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately clear why he was in Israel, though it is possible he was visiting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends on Friday... [Times of Israel, September 16, 2016]

Ynet adds that the assailant was heard shouting "Allahu Akhbar" as he ran at the group of Border Guard police with a knife in each hand. A third knife was found concealed on his dead body. It quotes the police spokesperson saying that security personnel

identified the suspect, and carried out the proper protocols. The terrorist quickly approached the officers with his hand raised and clutching a knife. The officers acted professionally, and identified him as an attacker [and] neutralized him. [Ynet, today]

Needless to say, the English-language version of the Ma'an News Agency website refers in its headline to "alleged stab attack". In the Palestinian Arab narrative, in which the European-funded, Bethlehem-based Ma'an is an active player, terrorism by Arabs against Jews and Israelis is always, but always, alleged. This saves a great deal of soul searching, even while it makes their pretensions at being an objective reporter of the local news a bad joke.

The Arabic-language version of the same report [here] calls him, as usual, "martyr".

16-May-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?

"Peace-partner" Abbas: The Pal Arabs say they are sick of him [Image Source]

The Ma'an News Agency people in a report whose headline - characteristically - calls this morning's stabbing attack in Jerusalem "alleged", quote Luba al-Samri, the Israel Police spokesperson, saying

police officers patrolling the scene this morning saw a Palestinian stab a religious Israeli man. The suspect allegedly threw the knife away and attempted to flee the scene. Israeli police chased and apprehended the youth without shooting him... [He is] identified... as a 20-year-old Palestinian from the village of Abu Dis [a Jerusalem neighbourhood]... The youth [Ma'an's word] was taken in by Israeli police for interrogation. Paramedics treated the Israeli for light injuries on the scene before transferring him to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. He was identified by Israeli media as a 30-year-old ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva student.

The Ma'an report - generously funded along with everything else Ma'an does by US and European donors - goes on to say that

the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found in a poll last month that support for stabbing attacks had seen a decline in the West Bank in recent months -- "due, it seems, to a rising perception in its inefficacy."

Kind of encouraging, no? We guess that's why they say it but the actual poll data send a less charming message.

The survey results [reported here] reflect a significant and ongoing passion on the part of a significant overall majority of Palestinian Arabs for Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks:

Support for use of knives in the current confrontations with Israel drops from 67% three months ago to 58% in this [April 2016] poll. Support for knifing attacks in the Gaza Strip stands at 82% and in the West Bank at 44%. [Source]

We noted a while back that what the Palestinian Arabs say they want does not always make logical sense ["10-Dec-14: What else do Palestinian Arabs want, beyond the 80% who say killing of ordinary Israelis is a good thing?"] but that dead Jews seem to be a constant in their prayers.

The other constant, at least according to the polling group quoted by Ma'an, is that a steady two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs see Mahmoud Abbas as a failure and want him to resign which, given that he was elected just once to a four year term on January 9, 2005 [source] does not seem that outrageous.

To give the numbers some perspective, you might want to take a look at "14-Dec-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?" and "22-Sep-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?"  

Here's what we believe, and the polling data bear it out consistently over years:

When columnists and analysts speak of the desire of Palestinian Arabs to live in peace, to get on with ordinary, quiet, constructive lives - as compelling as this interpretation is, the data don't support it. Anyone paying attention to the incitement pumped, generation after generation, into their communities and heads will not be surprised. [Source]

What the people living on the other side of the fence are saying is clear, credible and measurable. Being optimistic about the prospects for the sort of painful compromise that leads to peaceful relations is counterfactual and foolish, as much as we wish it were otherwise. That's something we wish the public figures pushing their "peace" "plans" would internalize.

16-May-16: Monday morning knifing in downtown Jerusalem

An image from social media: The intersection of Nevi'im and Route 1, near Damscus Gate, has seen
many recent Arab-on-Israeli stabbings 

Too early to be sure of the details, but news reports are emerging this morning (it's now 9:45 am Monday here) of a stabbing attack in central Jerusalem. Ynet says the assault happened on HaNevi'im (Prophets) Street, that the terrorist "was neutralized" by a Border Guard (Mishmar Hag'vul) police officer, and that the victim suffered stabbing injuries to the upper body and is reported to be in "light condition".

Other reports via social media say the stabbing was done close to Damascus Gate (in Hebrew, Sha'ar Shechem meaning Nablus Gate), that there are light injuries to a member of the security forces, that the attacker is alive, unharmed and under arrest, and that he is suspected of having an accomplice who has also been taken into custody. (We have noted in the past that the terror organizations have taken in recent months to encouraging attacks by pairs of assailants, evidently to improve the yield they so earnestly desire.) The knife allegedly used in the stabbing has been found (allegedly).

We have also seen unverified photos [here, for instance] of a man said to be the victim - a young Haredi Jew - and have the impression that his injuries seem relatively light. No details yet of the identity of the attackers. But from past experience, it will not be surprising if they turn out to be minors.

UPDATE May 16, 2016 at 8:30 pm: The victim is Yehoshua Frank, 26. Ynet quotes his recollections of the horror:

"I was with my wife on Hanevi'im Street with our twins who were in the stroller, and we were waiting for someone who was supposed to show us a new apartment in the area. All of a sudden, a young man stopped by us. He hesitated for a moment, and I saw that he was taking out a knife. I immediately ran up to him, and he yelled and jumped on me, and stabbed me in the shoulder and ribs. I fought him and pushed him away. Then he threw his knife at me and ran... It was a miracle that I noticed him... My first thought was that G-d forbid he would hurt my kids and my wife. When I went up to him, he focused on me. It's a miracle that I looked around and paid attention to who was stopping next to me."

09-Mar-16: Another Arab-on-Israeli attack in Jerusalem this morning

Scene of this morning's shooting near the Old City
[Image Source: Social media]

Police and ambulance sirens have been in the air non-stop this morning in the part of Jerusalem where we live.

A pair of Palestinian Arab men traveling in a car shot and critically injured an Israeli man this morning as he was standing at or close to the Jerusalem Light Rail line on Ha-Tzanhanim Street, beside the walls of the Old City and a 2 minute stroll from Damscus Gate.

Times of Israel says the two occupants of the vehicle were shot dead by Israel Police officers at the scene and that the shooters are

likely the same men who had carried out a failed shooting attack at a Jerusalem public bus elsewhere in Jerusalem earlier in the morning. They had opened fire on a number 32 Egged bus at the Ramot Junction in the city’s northwest. There were no injuries in the earlier shooting attack, and police launched a search for the vehicle that was seen driving away from the location.

The guns found inside the attack vehicle by
police after the two shooters were
eliminated this morning  next to the Old
City walls [Image Source]

And as if to remind us that everyone - Jews, Moslems, Christians, residents, visitors, old, young, soldiers, civilians - face the exact same danger from the jihadists, it quotes an ambulance service paramedic, Muhammad Abed al-Rahman, an employee of Magen David Adom, who treated the victim of the attack:

"We administered life-saving treatment to him and quickly took him away while keeping him sedated and on respiration. He is in serious condition."

And indeed, it turns out (according to an Israel National News update) that the man seriously injured in the gunfire was a Jerusalem Arab of about 50 named Imad Abu Ali. He too (like the Israeli victims of yesterday's gun attack) suffered a shooting injury to the head. That's where the jihadists are instructed to aim.

Ma'an News Agency's spin is, unsurprisingly, consistent with past form:

"Israeli police shot dead two Palestinians outside Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday morning after they allegedly carried out a shooting... They were later identified as Abdul-Malak Saleh abu Kharoub,19, and and Muhammad Jamal al-Kalouti, 21."

The report published by Ma'an for its Arabic readers is, naturally, cast a little differently, inevitably describing both dead men as "martyrs". On one view, that's an odd thing to call a couple of well-armed toughs who opened fire from inside a moving car at a bus-load of rush-hour civilian passengers - which is what they did in Ramot this morning - and then a little later on passers-by in a predominantly-Arab part of the city.

But since their very well-funded news reporting is backed by such governments and major donors as the Human Rights and International Law Secretariat, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, UK, EU, US, UNESCO, UNDP and the Arab Human Rights Fund, who are we to judge?

19-Feb-16: Outside Damascus Gate this morning: another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack

Security outside Damascus Gate [Image Source]

It's a delightful late-winter Friday here in Jerusalem: blue skies, balmy breezes, unseasonably warm air, the Muslim Sabbath, the eve of the Jewish Day of Rest.

A perfect morning for today's sixth annual Menachem Begin Run which has gone off without a hitch. Also an ideal time for certain kinds of people to attempt murder. 

At Damascus Gate, one of the two major entry points to Jerusalem's Old City and known to Israelis by its Hebrew name Sha'ar Shechem or the Nablus Gate, a man armed with a knife, attacked a pair of Israeli Border Guard officers providing security for the entering and exiting throngs. The attacker struck from behind the backs of his victims, according to AFP. A video clip is being shown at this hour on the Aljazeera Arabic-language network and YouTube.

Times of Israel says he's a 20-year-old Arab male from Kafr 'Aqab [كفر عقب‎], regarded as one of East Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods even though it is located far closer to Ramallah where the PA sits than it is to the rest of Israel's capital city. Ynet gives the attacker's name as Mohammed Abu Khalaf, The attack happened at about 9:00 am. The knife man was stopped by police shots and died of his wounds. He was the holder of an Israeli ID card.

Both officers are injured. One suffered blows to the upper body; the other has an injured arm. 

Both are in their early 20s, and both are being treated for their wounds at Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital.

The Times of Israel report notes that the area around Damascus Gate

is especially tense on Fridays when thousands of Muslim worshipers pass through the gate to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City’s Temple Mount.

Ma'an News Agency says this is the Israeli identification
card of the stabber [Source]

It might have said, but did not, that the throngs of Muslim faithful continued their comings and goings unimpeded in any meaningful sense. An article posted just yesterday on the website of Al-Monitor ["Why the Damascus Gate is more important than ever", Shlomi Eldar, February 19, 2016] says Damascus Gate has emerged as

"a holy site. Young Palestinians post images of it, with and without photos of dead assailants, to which they add verses from the Quran or from contemporary poetry. These verses praise the “gate of bravery,” which will herald salvation and redemption, that is, the end of the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital... The Israel Defense Forces and security establishment are well aware that Damascus Gate has become a pilgrimage site for assailants from across the West Bank... Since the attack that killed [Hadar Cohen, 19, shot dead by three Arab assailants just two weeks ago] on who had just finished basic training, only experienced officers are being deployed in that area... Following a recent assessment of the situation by the defense establishment, and especially after the attack in which Cohen was killed, it was decided to pursue a strategy of “containment.” In other words, so long as the stabbing attacks are being perpetrated by young, unaffiliated and inexperienced assailants, all that is required is the deployment of trained and qualified troops. There is no need to further beef up security at Damascus Gate. Setting up roadblocks and electronic checkpoints would not only severely damage tourism in Jerusalem, but would also have diplomatic and psychological ramifications. Separation roadblocks in the Old City in general and at Damascus Gate in particular could be construed as the de facto partition of the city.At this stage, as long as the intifada largely remains knife attacks by lone attackers, the defense establishment prefers to take calculated risks, harsh as the price being paid might be."

Our sense is that if Eldar at Al-Monitor is right in his assessment, most Israelis would be shocked to know of the mortal risks being taken by the authorities over their heads and on their backs.

15-Feb-16: Capping a long day of extreme violence, an Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack in Jerusalem

From the Israeli social media, a snapshot
of one of the automatic weapons used in
tonight's shooting attack at Damascus
Gate [Image Source]

Late Sunday night, after a day of seriously violent Arab-on-Israeli attacks [see "14-Feb-16: Sunday bloody Sunday"], a pair of Palestinian Arabs armed with automatic weapons opened fire on a cluster of police officers standing at a Jerusalem Light Rail station serving the Old City of Jerusalem.

The attack, first reported around 11:00 pm, was launched at the exact spot where an earlier Palestinian Arab shooting-and-knifing attack had taken place twelve days ago. In that February 3, 2016 assault, a Border Police trainee officer, Hadar Cohen, aged just 19, was killed. [See "Palestinians Kill Israeli Officer Before Being Shot Dead", Associated Press via ABC News, February 3, 2016]

Tonight's shooting attack was directed at a group of Border Guard police officers near Damascus Gate. The gunmen had what Haaretz calls home-made Carl Gustav-style rifles.

According to Times of Israel, the officers returned fired, hitting and killing one of the gunmen immediately. They chased after the second, who fled the scene while continuing to shoot. That second attacker was soon hit and killed by police fire. There are thankfully no injuries to Israeli officers or bystanders.

The escalation in the nature and volume of Palestinian Arab attacks is a worrying development. But not necessarily for consumers of CNN's brand of news. After hundreds of knifings, vehicle rammings and shootings directed at Israeli civilians and security personnel, tonight's attack is explained this way by CNN's editors:

Israel has experienced a spate of violence since October.

Great work, guys. Analytic depth to be proud of.

09-Feb-16: The unthinkable things Palestinian Arab society wants for and from its children

Video grab depicts  passionate toddler explaining
what she wishes Palestinian Arabs would do to the Jews
[Source: Palestinian Media Watch clip - here]

Is there a name for the psychological condition that holds an entire society in its grip, causing it to invest its children in a death cult that will certainly lead to the deaths of many of those children, and to the justification of those deaths on the grounds that the enemy's children are harmed, injured and/or killed?

In the past five days alone:

• A Palestinian teen girl attempted to stab Israeli troops at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on Tuesday morning, police said. The suspect, 16, was arrested after pulling a knife on border guards when they asked to search her, police said. There were no Israeli injuries reported. “The police reacted quickly, pushed her away and subdued her,” a police spokesperson said. Police said the teenager, a student, had concealed the knife in her backpack. When police asked to search her bag, she pulled the knife “and tried to stab the policemen,” police said. [Source]
• [Also today, a] Palestinian teenage girl armed with a knife was detained outside the West Bank settlement of Carmei Tzur. The girl, said to be around 13, was arrested by the security guard at the entrance of the settlement in the Etzion bloc.  [Source]
• An 11-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed and wounded Monday [February 8, 2016] in an attack in the central Israeli town of Ramle. The attacker fled the scene, apparently toward the Jawaresh neighborhood of the city. The boy was hospitalized with moderate injuries, the Magen David Adom emergency service said. The child said that the assailant was an Arab. A 17-year-old Arab youth was arrested a short time later on suspicion of carrying out the attack. [Source]
• [A] guard at the bus station in [Ramle] was lightly injured when he was stabbed by two 13-year-old girls in a nationalistic attack [on Thursday, February 4, 2016]. One of the girls’ mothers subsequently apologized for her daughter’s action. [Source] ...Central District spokesman Ch.-Supt. Ami Ben-David said that the two teens approached the metal detector at the entrance to the station around 10:30 Thursday morning, at which point the security guard asked them to show him identification. At that point the two girls pulled knives and stabbed the guard, lightly wounding him in the hand and leg, Ben-David said... One of the two girls was carrying a school backpack and a picture taken at the scene by a police photographer showed the contents of the bag scattered on the pavement, including schoolwork, a calculator, a juice bag and two knives. [Source]

There's quite a collection out there of human rights groups that claim to be working for the protection of Palestinian Arab children. The Ramallah-based Defence for Children International - Palestine, for instance, says this on its website

We defend children’s rights three ways: offering free legal aid, documenting violations of international law, and advocating for greater protections... [The organization] is committed to securing a just and viable future for Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

A viable future? Greater protections? If they have commented on, let alone condemned, the systemic and systematic incitement of Palestinian Arab children to become martyrs and killers for their grandparents' society's glory, then they are being awfully quiet about it. If any reader knows of any instance of DCI-P criticizing the fostering among Pal Arab children of martyrdom/murder as supreme values, click here please to tell us.

Another instance: the phenomenally-well-funded Human Rights Watch, who write this on their "Children's rights" page:

Millions of children... are forced to serve as soldiers in armed conflict... Young and immature, they are often easily exploited. In many cases, they are abused by the very individuals responsible for their care. We are working to help protect children around the world, so they can grow into adults.

Since they speak of "easily exploited", they're surely enraged by what's being done to Palestinian Arab children by the religious, educational and political leaders of their communities. Because if they are, we're surely not seeing any sign of it. If anyone knows of HRW condemnation of the fostering among Pal Arab children of martyrdom/murder as supreme values, please click here to enlighten us.

Some months ago, we quoted here [20-Oct-15: Children and what a soulless society can do to them] the words of an acclaimed leader of oppressed people:

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." - Nelson Mandela 1918-2013, addressing the launch of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Pretoria, South Africa, May 8, 1995 [source]

Not for the first time, we ask: where is UNICEF? Or Save the Children, or Terre des Hommes, or the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement or even the dishonorable Amnesty International (on whom we have not yet entirely given up hope)? Or the other well-funded, high-profile public interest organizations that purport to care for the welfare of children but that take so little interest in the unfolding tragedy of the children of the Palestinian Arabs and the terror-obsessed jihadists cheating them of their future?

03-Dec-15: Near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, another Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack tonight

Screen shot from Channel 2 news coverage of the stabbing scene, Street of the
Prophets (Heb: Rehov Hanevi'im) Jerusalem, near Damascus
Gate [Image Source]

Incredibly, there has been yet another stabbing attack close to the Old City of Jerusalem's Damascus Gate tonight. A uniformed police officer is injured. This happened just after dark, around 5:30 this evening (Thursday).

Times of Israel says:

The suspected assailant, a 21-year-old resident of the Palestinian West Bank city of Tulkarem, was shot dead after he approached a police car and stabbed the officer, security officials said. The stabbing occurred on Hanevi’im Street, a main road near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate... The officer, a man in his thirties [is] a member of the Israel Police’s Special Patrol Unit...

According to Ynet, the policeman who was the target of the stabbing

fought the attacker, and his fellow officers, who saw the ongoing struggle, opened fire and shot the attacker dead. A Palestinian doctor from a nearby clinic who heard the commotion on the street went outside, noticed the wounded policeman and gave him initial medical care until Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene. "We did our job. We gave him first aid and called an ambulance," said the doctor from Silwan. The 35-year-old wounded policeman suffered a stab wound to his hand and a gunshot wound to his leg, the latter likely caused by Israeli forces' fire when working to neutralize the terrorist. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the wounded policeman to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital, where he was taken into surgery.

The attacker traveled some distance to reach the highlight of his short life.

Tulkarem is only 30 kilometers from the Tel Aviv metropolis, and twice that distance from Jerusalem. But distances can be deceiving in this part of the world. In Israel's life-and-death War of Independence, which, as a function of extreme Arab enthusiasm for a war of devastation and expulsion (of us Jews), got underway even before Israel managed to declare its independence on May 14, 1948, Tulkarem was under the control of the Arab forces of... Iraq. It may surprise younger readers to know that Iraq's army played a significant role -  an expeditionary force that eventually numbered 8,000 men along with 100 Iraqi Air Force planes - part of the massive Arab military invasion from the north, the east and the south, Once the 1947-49 war was over and Israel survived, Tulkarem - along with all the other Arab towns and cities of Judea and Samaria - fell under Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan occupation. Jordan's rule lasted for 19 years until its forces were routed by Israel in 1967's Six Day War, another life-and-death experience in the Israeli view.

We expect today's knife-man from Tulkarem will quickly be declared a martyr by those interested in creating more dead Palestinian Arabs. When we know more about his identity, we will update this post.

29-Nov-15: In Jerusalem, the knives continue to speak

The scene of today's attack, as depicted in a news photo of an earlier
essentially-identical attack at the same place, on October 14, 2015
[Image Source]

It's a bright, sunny Sunday morning here in Jerusalem and the knife-borne hatred is, once again, out there and on display for anyone wanting to understand.

Via Israel National News:

A policeman was injured in a stabbing at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, outside the Old City, initial reports indicate Sunday morning. A Palestinian Arab attacker managed to stab the policeman as he was stopping the attack, reports say; the policeman is suffering from light injuries. The attack unfolded on Hagai St., a flashpoint for terror in the Old City in recent weeks...

Damascus Gate is one of the two major entrance/exit points for the Old City.

Times of Israel, in a slightly more updated report, explains that the victim's injuries are not so light. He was stabbed in the neck and is said to have suffered light to moderate injuries, After emergency treatment at the site, he was rushed to the Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem. The attacker was shot and killed by officers at the scene. The same source reports that the attacker is a resident of Nablus - we call it Shechem in Hebrew, and the Damascus Gate is called Shechem Gate in Hebrew - aged 38. AFP says his name is Bassem Salah. Witnesses heard him shout "Allahu akbar" as he plunged the knife into the victim's body. A second knife was found concealed in his clothing, indicting thwarted plans for additional savagery.

Unrelated - but of course related - there's security camera video [here] of an Israeli Border Guard officer being attacked from behind by an assailant with a knife in Nahariya, in Israel's north, on Friday night. The stabber turns out - yet again - to be a 16 year old Palestinian Arab boy.

10-Nov-15: Damascus Gate, Jerusalem: Another knifing attack on Israelis

Times of Israel says

...an assailant attempted to stab police near Damascus Gate. The police officers, who were not harmed, shot and disarmed him. The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear.

This assault happened at about 12:30 pm, minutes after the Pisgat Ze'ev knifing attack we reported here. Damascus Gate (in Hebrew: Sha'ar Shechem) is, along with Jaffa Gate, one of the two busiest points of entry and exit for Jerusalem's historic Old City.

04-Oct-15: Jerusalem Watch | A teenage boy is stabbed from behind just hours after last night's two murders

Security personnel pursued and caught up with this morning';s knife man,
and terminated his terrorism activities [Image Source]

It's early Sunday afternoon here, the day before the end of Sukkot, the Tabernacles festival that provides millions of Israelis with the opportunity for time with family, picnics, rest and recreation. Plus the joy of Simchat Torah which starts at sundown this evening.

But in the new reality here, Jerusalem and its citizens are grappling with seriously escalated violence, and a deeply worrying sense that more knifing and more shooting attacks, and perhaps worse, are exactly what the ruling echelon in the Palestinian Arab world have decided we are going to get.

Just a few hours after the killing of two Israeli men in the Old City of Jerusalem last night (Saturday), a second stabbing attack, terribly similar to the earlier one, was carried out on a 15 year old boy close to Damascus Gate, one of the heavily-used entrances to the Old City from Jerusalem's Western neighbourhoods. According to JTA, a news syndication service, this morning

The 15-year-old victim was in moderate condition after being treated on the scene early Sunday morning by paramedics, according to initial reports. He was taken to the hospital with wounds to his chest and back. The suspected assailant reportedly fled the scene after stabbing the teen. A video posted online appeared to show him hundreds of feet away, on the tracks of Jerusalem’s light rail, where he was shot by police officers. Hamas media named the suspected stabber as Fadi Aloon, a resident of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya. A post before the attack on what appeared to be Aloon’s Facebook page pledged martyrdom and asked God’s forgiveness for sins.

Israel National News focuses on the victim who understands from his hospital bed in Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center well just how fortunate he is to have come through the trauma more or less intact:

15 year-old Moshe Malka is on the mend after being stabbed near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday night - and he regards his survival as nothing more than a miracle... "Now I will take with me something for self-defense, I will not walk around like that in the street... The general feeling among Jerusalemites is fear to walk around the city streets, defenseless." Malka had been walking toward the Old City from his yeshiva when he was attacked. "During the walk I saw an Arab who looked as if he's waiting for something to happen, and then began running toward us with a hand in his pocket," he recounted. "We started to run away, I got stuck on the sidewalk and he began to stab me... A friend of mine saw him and sprayed him with tear gas, but the terrorist escaped... I didn't feel blood until I touched my shirt"...  Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat notified Malka early Sunday that security forces had caught and killed the terrorist, and called Malka a "hero." But Malka is simply thankful to those who came to his rescue.  "I survived through a miracle," he said. "If my friend had not sprayed him with tear gas he would have continued to stab me... I thank G-d I was saved." 

So how disturbed by these most recent lethal Jerusalem attacks are the 'moderate' leaders of the Palestinian Authority, and Mahmoud Abbas, its peace-aspiring senior figure, in particular? We may soon know. But it's worth noting that tributes to the nobility of a man with a knife who plunges it into the back of a defenceless fifteen year old boy can already be seen online. Here, for instance, on the Facebook page of something called Palestine Social Global [archived here, in case it gets changed in the coming days] where they display his photo (that's it over on the right) next to the caption "Palestine worth sacrificing" and call him "martyr".

How widely or well is this morning's vicious stabbing attack reported? We expect to come back to that question today.